Best of AtM: Packing for Children

Please enjoy this "encore performance" of a previous Affording the Mou$e post. Back on Monday, September 24, with all new material!

Let's face it, packing for the children usually falls to Mom. I mean, they're helpless, right? Well, yes and no. Certainly, I would never entrust the job of packing their own clothing for a vacation to my daughters, now at ages 6 and 9, but I do allow them input. And although I know I'll be the one doing most of the work, I pack in such a way as to save myself hassle when we arrive at Walt Disney World. How? By using the Ziplock bag system. Intrigued? Read on.              This bag has an outfit for Reagan to wear into the park, plus an extra shirt (in case of spills).

First, I figure out how many days of clothing each child needs (adding one or two extra, depending on how messy and/or how well potty trained the child is). Then I organize complete outfits: shirt, shorts, underwear, socks, and even hair accessories. Next I put each complete outfit into a gallon-sized Ziplock bag. Finally, I label the bags with the child's name and classification of the outfit (travel, park, extra, etc.). I have gone so far as to label them with the actual days that the child will wear them, especially if it's a special outfit that I want them to wear, say, when we have a character meal.



Each child has her own duffel bag with all her ziplock bags inside. When we arrive at our resort, I simply assign each girl a drawer, and they unload their own duffel bags. Each morning, the children can grab an appropriate bag (or, if too young, you can hand out the bags) and get themselves dressed. Easy-peasey-mac-n-cheesey!